6 injured, including off-duty police officer, in flash mob in Center City

Identities of police, assailants withheld.

Police are investigating a flash mob that turned violent in Center City Saturday.

ABC6/Twitter

Photo:

Three teenagers were arrested in connection with an apparent flash mob that sparked an incident that injured six people in Center City Saturday night, including an off-duty police officer and his wife.

The group of teenage boys broke off from a larger flash mob in the area of 16th and Walnut streets, a popular retail district, and began randomly attacking people, philly.com reported.

The off-duty officer was punched repeatedly by the teens when he tried to arrest them. His wife was punched in the face when she threw water on the alleged assailants in an attempt to break up another attack.

The officer is believed to have suffered a broken orbital bone, NBC10 reported. All six victims were transported to area hospitals.

"We looked and we saw people who had obviously been beaten up," a witness, who did not want to be identified, told NBC10. "They were bleeding from their heads. We saw at least three people that were like that."

The identities of the youth who were arrested are being withheld as they are all minors.

Some witnesses said the attacks appeared to be unprovoked. Police are reviewing surveillance video taken in the vicinity of the incident.